What can be bad about 902 pin-ups? This is a huge collection of pin ups from the 1890s all the way through to the 1970s. Most of them are from the pin-up golden age of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. This is primarily an art book by the well-know Taschen. The colour reproductions are very high quality. Many of the images get a full page. Four images per page is another common layout, but all kinds of lay outs are used to really squeeze the images in. Much less satisfying is the text. After a fine introductory essay on the history of the pin-up (sharing its title with the book) the quality of the writing fades. The other initial essays are forgettable. The great bulk of the book is divided up by artist with each getting a brief biography. Other than the basic information on birth dates and schools attended these biographies all fade together into glowing praise of each man’s (or woman’s) brushwork, colour and luminosity. I’m not sure what I expected out of a book about pin-ups, but except for a few gems of information I was underwhelmed. Avoid it if you are looking for “scholarly” stuff about the place of the pin-up in the American psyche or the history of sex appeal in advertizing. Get it if you like to look at pin-ups.
30 June 2010
A Review: The Great American Pin-Up - Charles G Martignette & Louis K Meisel
4 / 5 Stars
What can be bad about 902 pin-ups? This is a huge collection of pin ups from the 1890s all the way through to the 1970s. Most of them are from the pin-up golden age of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. This is primarily an art book by the well-know Taschen. The colour reproductions are very high quality. Many of the images get a full page. Four images per page is another common layout, but all kinds of lay outs are used to really squeeze the images in. Much less satisfying is the text. After a fine introductory essay on the history of the pin-up (sharing its title with the book) the quality of the writing fades. The other initial essays are forgettable. The great bulk of the book is divided up by artist with each getting a brief biography. Other than the basic information on birth dates and schools attended these biographies all fade together into glowing praise of each man’s (or woman’s) brushwork, colour and luminosity. I’m not sure what I expected out of a book about pin-ups, but except for a few gems of information I was underwhelmed. Avoid it if you are looking for “scholarly” stuff about the place of the pin-up in the American psyche or the history of sex appeal in advertizing. Get it if you like to look at pin-ups.
What can be bad about 902 pin-ups? This is a huge collection of pin ups from the 1890s all the way through to the 1970s. Most of them are from the pin-up golden age of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. This is primarily an art book by the well-know Taschen. The colour reproductions are very high quality. Many of the images get a full page. Four images per page is another common layout, but all kinds of lay outs are used to really squeeze the images in. Much less satisfying is the text. After a fine introductory essay on the history of the pin-up (sharing its title with the book) the quality of the writing fades. The other initial essays are forgettable. The great bulk of the book is divided up by artist with each getting a brief biography. Other than the basic information on birth dates and schools attended these biographies all fade together into glowing praise of each man’s (or woman’s) brushwork, colour and luminosity. I’m not sure what I expected out of a book about pin-ups, but except for a few gems of information I was underwhelmed. Avoid it if you are looking for “scholarly” stuff about the place of the pin-up in the American psyche or the history of sex appeal in advertizing. Get it if you like to look at pin-ups.
22 June 2010
A Review: Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes – Robert Louis Stevenson
3 / 5 Stars
A quaint but somewhat flat travel log. A famous author takes a few weeks and hikes across the southern French mountains. He relates what he ate, whom he met, the scenes he saw, the things he felt. I’m sure it sounded different when it was first published over 100 years ago, but today it all reads as rather pedestrian. And I’m not just saying that because Stevenson walked. It’s a loose narrative with no clear flow and hardly any striking passages. That’s probably how it really was to walk across the mountains of southern France, so it’s accurate at least. Of a bit more value are the bits of history that are woven into the account. He discusses the “Napoleon of Wolves” and the Camisard revolt. If you are a big-big fan of Stevenson’s globe-trotting or of Victorian travel logs then it’s worth a look, otherwise just go watch the 2001 film Le Pacte des loups.
A quaint but somewhat flat travel log. A famous author takes a few weeks and hikes across the southern French mountains. He relates what he ate, whom he met, the scenes he saw, the things he felt. I’m sure it sounded different when it was first published over 100 years ago, but today it all reads as rather pedestrian. And I’m not just saying that because Stevenson walked. It’s a loose narrative with no clear flow and hardly any striking passages. That’s probably how it really was to walk across the mountains of southern France, so it’s accurate at least. Of a bit more value are the bits of history that are woven into the account. He discusses the “Napoleon of Wolves” and the Camisard revolt. If you are a big-big fan of Stevenson’s globe-trotting or of Victorian travel logs then it’s worth a look, otherwise just go watch the 2001 film Le Pacte des loups.
20 June 2010
A Review: China’s Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party – Michael Schoenhals, ed.
4 / 5 Stars
A remarkably clear window into another time and place. This is a collection of primary sources related to the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Many of the documents are from the government. Many others are from the people themselves. There are selections from both the students (Red Guards) who carried out so much of the ground work of the Revolution and from their targets (party persons in power who are taking the Capitalist road). Particularly powerful are Document 20, the transcript of the “struggle” against Wang Guangmei, and Document 64, a brief anonymous autobiography. Since it’s all primary sources there is very little in the way of commentary. That’s just fine since the documents speak well enough for themselves. They are well-arranged and the translations are very readable. The whole progress of the Cultural Revolution unfolds quite clearly. It was not a dinner party, it was an act of violence. Just as Mao proclaimed.
A remarkably clear window into another time and place. This is a collection of primary sources related to the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Many of the documents are from the government. Many others are from the people themselves. There are selections from both the students (Red Guards) who carried out so much of the ground work of the Revolution and from their targets (party persons in power who are taking the Capitalist road). Particularly powerful are Document 20, the transcript of the “struggle” against Wang Guangmei, and Document 64, a brief anonymous autobiography. Since it’s all primary sources there is very little in the way of commentary. That’s just fine since the documents speak well enough for themselves. They are well-arranged and the translations are very readable. The whole progress of the Cultural Revolution unfolds quite clearly. It was not a dinner party, it was an act of violence. Just as Mao proclaimed.
17 June 2010
A Review: The Miocene Arrow – Sean McMullen
5 / 5 Stars
A superior follow-up. Book two of the Greatwinter Trilogy is a lot better than the first. This is not a novel built from two novellas as the first book was. This is a long novel from the get-go. That solves the consistency problem of the first. It also allows everything to be bigger. Bigger conflicts, better technology, more factions, more characters. That is not to say things are top-heavy. McMullen has done his work at every level to support the bigger story. Happily, there is a more even distribution of female and male characters and their interactions throughout are far more realistic (read: the thick sexuality of the first book is a bit thinner this time). McMullen does all of this without loosing any of the elements that made the previous volume so good. His world-crafting remains impeccable and his characters move in that world as if they have grown up there. He maintains a complex interplay between politics and relationships. He also continues to explore the limits of technology (if there are limits). I think by every literary measure, this is a better book. And the plot? Here McMullen gives us a look at North America in the 40th Century and lays out yet another complex dueling culture. This time duels are fought in fabric and wood airplanes called gunwings. Such duels decide matters of honor and the outcome of wars between the Airlords. Or they should. Avids from Australica are about to teach the Americans about total war.
A superior follow-up. Book two of the Greatwinter Trilogy is a lot better than the first. This is not a novel built from two novellas as the first book was. This is a long novel from the get-go. That solves the consistency problem of the first. It also allows everything to be bigger. Bigger conflicts, better technology, more factions, more characters. That is not to say things are top-heavy. McMullen has done his work at every level to support the bigger story. Happily, there is a more even distribution of female and male characters and their interactions throughout are far more realistic (read: the thick sexuality of the first book is a bit thinner this time). McMullen does all of this without loosing any of the elements that made the previous volume so good. His world-crafting remains impeccable and his characters move in that world as if they have grown up there. He maintains a complex interplay between politics and relationships. He also continues to explore the limits of technology (if there are limits). I think by every literary measure, this is a better book. And the plot? Here McMullen gives us a look at North America in the 40th Century and lays out yet another complex dueling culture. This time duels are fought in fabric and wood airplanes called gunwings. Such duels decide matters of honor and the outcome of wars between the Airlords. Or they should. Avids from Australica are about to teach the Americans about total war.
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